
REPORT 


OF 


JAMES T. HODG-E, Esq. 




Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Printers, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty. 


1864. 





























* 



























* 







On the Coal Deposits in the Rocky Mountains. 


To the President and Board of Directors of the 

Union Pacific Railroad Company : 

Gentlemen : In accordance with your instructions of October 
loth, 1863, I proceeded forthwith to the Rocky Mountains for the 
purpose of investigating the capabilities of the region near the 
surveys for the Union Pacific Railroad, for making iron and 
producing mineral fuel. 

Bv the overland stage line I reached the base of the Black 
Hills at Laporte, on the 1st of November, to find the country 
covered with snow, rendering geological explorations altogether 
impracticable. Here I was detained a week, waiting for the 
surveying party I was to join, which was fitting out at Denver. 

On the 8th I had crossed the Black Hills, and in Laramie 
Plains I first had an opportunity of investigating the mineral 
character of the country. In the prairie hills, three miles south 
30° east by compass, from the stage station, called “Big 
Laramie,’’ (from the name of the river, on the banks of which it 
stands), I discovered a lean iron ore, intermixed w T ith veins of 
calc-spar, outcropping in flat bands, almost black in color and in 
considerable quantity. Similar ore is again met with covering 
the surface of the prairie on a direct line toward the stage sta¬ 
tion. It is a hematite at the surface, probably from atmospheric 
oxidation of a carbonate of the character of the clay iron stone, 
such as is found in the coal measures. The geological formations 
in the vicinity are shales of olive, bluish, and brown colors, as¬ 
sociated with slaty calcareous strata, which contain sharks’ 
teeth and other fossils, that refer the group to the cretaceous 
period. Plates of selenite are abundant, scattered on the sur¬ 
face of the shales. 






o 


Over the plains nearer tlie mountains to tlie east, are occasion¬ 
ally met outcroppings of a reddish, sandstone, and a very close- 
grained, compact limestone of light shades, flesh, straw, pink, blue, 
red, and some nearly white. This limestone would answer well 
for a flux in smelting iron ores. Coal is reported to he found 
near the forks of the Laramie in these plains, and is probably 
of similar character to the same mineral worked near Denver 
(to he afterwards noticed), which also is associated with iron 
ores and limestones. 

Though the iron ores I discovered, appear too lean to be 
valuable, they afford a clew as to the geological relations of the 
ores of this region and the localities where th?y are most likely 
to he met with. 

Approaching the Cheyenne Pass from the West, small rolled 
pieces of hematite are found, both in the wagon road and also 
on the side of a prairie hill a quarter of a mile north from it, 
which hill is capped by ragged ledges of red limestone in hori¬ 
zontal strata. The pieces of ore are smooth and hard, and the 
quality is excellent, hut there is no certainty of quantity suffic¬ 
ient for working. Further explorations, however, may lead to 
more important discoveries. Should such he made, iron works 
might he established near the mountains, on one of the branches 
of Laramie River. Several tributaries to it of clearwater, never 
failing, run through the valley, seldom, however, with sufficient 
fall to afford water-power. The limestones may be depended 
upon for flux; and fuel will be afforded either by the beds of 
mineral coal, or by the pines of the mountains. The region, 
however, is generally deficient in good timber ; none is seen on 
the prairies, and the growth upon the mountains is scattered, 
and for the most part thin. It consists almost exclusively of 
pines, balsam fir, and quaking aspen. Of these the first 
will make suitable charcoal for smelting iron ores. Until 
recently such fuel alone supplied the blast-furnaces on the 
shores of the Chesapeake, at Paltimore and its vicinity. In 
the mountains further South I afterward found spruce trees ac¬ 
companying the pines. The Medicine Bow Mountains, on the 
west side of Laramie Plains, appear to contain a heavier forest 
growth than tlie Black Hills, and should iron ore be found on 
that side of the plains, it might prove a better region for the 


manufacture of iron than the eastern side. I proceeded as far 
west as Fort Ilalleck, on a branch of the Medicine Bow Creek, 
and at the northeast base of Medicine Bow Mountains, and 
sought to ascertain the locality of iron ore on this creek, reported 
by Mr. Engelmann, who accompanied the expedition of Lieut. 
Bryan. I saw the interpreter and guide of this expedition, Mr. 
Duval, who is still in Government employment at Fort Ilalleck. 
He was entirely ignorant of any such discovery. I learned, 
however, of the occurrence of coal-beds, said to be of large size, 
in the prairie hills six miles northeast from Fort Ilalleck, and 
made several ineffectual attempts to find them. The east side 
of the hill, where they were discovered, I found covered deep 
with snow, and though I remained eleven days at Fort Ilalleck 
in hope of a favorable time for exploration, it was for nearly the 
whole period almost impracticable for one to cross the prairies, 
and dangerous to leave the stage road. The wind every day 
blew with extraordinary fury, sweeping the snow forward, and 
piling it in deep drifts in the canons and gulches, and on the 
lee or east side of the hills. For days together a man could 
with difficulty stand up against it, and the driving snow often 
prevented his seeing one hundred yards in any direction. Dur¬ 
ing this time the thermometer ranged from zero to 10° below. 
It was the first day of December when I reluctantly left this 
portion of the Rocky Mountains, in despair of making in it any 
useful "eolocdcal observations at so advanced and inclement a 
season. 

Before going to Fort Ilalleck, I accompanied the surveying 
party of Mr. B. B. Brayton through the Black Hills, on the 
Cheyenne Pass, leading from Lodge Jole Creek to Salt Lake, 
and it is for the sake of completing my account of the plains 
west of the Black Hills, before proceeding to that of the moun¬ 
tain district and the plains to the east of it, that I have intro¬ 
duced above my remarks upon the country about Fort Ilalleck. 

At the Cheyenne Pass the Black Hill range, extending due 
north and south, presents a very uniform slope on its western 
side, but little interrupted by canons, such as are of frequent 
occurrence in other portions ot the Rocky Mountains. This 
slope, nearly to the summit, is that of the limestone strata, which, 
uplifted from their horizontal position in the plains, here form 


4 


the outermost layers of the range. In a gorge near the 
base of the mountain they are exposed to the thickness of 
full twenty feet, which is probably but a small portion of the 
real thickness of the formation. The rock is in broad, flat 
blocks, admirably suited for building stones, and much of it, 
though never crystalline, appeared as if it might make a sub¬ 
stantial marble of fair quality, but not of bright colors. I could 
discover no fossils in it. Beneath this rock, exposed in preci¬ 
pitous ledges along the gorges, and curving up from under it at 
the summit, is a red silicious sandstone, resembling the Devonian 
red sandstone of the Alleghanies. It covers the surface of the 
hills lying north of the Pass, spreading out over broad areas in 
nearly horizontal strata. These toward the east abut in bold 
cliffs, and next beyond them in this direction appear the 
granitic and porpliyritic rocks, which make up the central 
portion of the range. The only distinct fossils I could find 
in the sandstone were small encrenites. Neither this forma¬ 
tion nor the limestone is likely to afford any useful minerals, 
though the latter may possibly prove a repository in occasional 
localities of hematite. Professor James Hall, of Albany, to 
whom I have submitted specimens of both the limestone and 
sandstone, refers the group to the carboniferous formation of the 
age of the true coal measures. 

The rocks which compose the mass of the Black Hills, are 
red granites, red sienites, and red porpliyritic sienites. They 
form not only the high ragged peaks and groups of rough hills 
that lie to the north and south of the pass, but the smoother 
surface and prairie-like hills of the pass itself are also under¬ 
laid by the same formation. A peculiar feature it everywhere 
exhibits is a decided tendency to disintegrate and crumble 
into coarse angular fragments. The surface is very generally 
covered with these, which make a poor soil enough, but the 
very best of roads. The wagon-road through the pass, though 
unimproved by any labor upon it, is for the most part un¬ 
surpassed in smoothness and durability by any macadamized 
road. This tendency to disintegrate is also the cause of the 
numerous peaks and monument-shaped masses of all sizes, 
standing on the steep mountain slopes and summits, and also 
scattered over the smoother and level portions of the mountains. 


5 


Some of these appear like the boulders of northern latitudes, 
perched upon ledges, from which they could be easily tipped off. 
Others resemble icy masses along a frozen coast, as they melt 
away on the approach of spring. In some instances, when the 
disintegration lias gone on most rapidly at the base of tower-like 
masses, huge blocks have parted from the main body to which 
they belonged, and have fallen down, exposing a fractured and 
nearly smooth face, sometimes of several hundred square feet 
area. In general, the outline produced by the disintegration is 
rounded like that of rolled boulders. I could find in these for¬ 
mations no metallic veins, nor any features that would lead me 
to look for iron ores in the central part of the range. Ho mica 
nor talcose slates accompany the granites, and the only varia¬ 
tion in the rocks is as they become more or less sienitic or 
porphyritic in their composition. Humerous quartz veins, how¬ 
ever, are seen toward the eastern side of the pass, crossing the 
road in a northerly and southerly direction, and projecting above 
the surface, which in their vicinity is covered with loose pieces of 
this mineral. These veins resemble the gold-bearing quartz 
veins of the Southern States, but are unlike those of the Colorado 
mining district. The granites also of that part of the Rocky 
Mountain range are very different from those of the Black Hills, 
being of light colors and gneissoid in structure. 

On passing out from the central range toward the plains on 
the east side, one everywhere meets facing the mountains, a range 
of high precipitous cliffs of red sandstone, the lower layers 
often conglomerates. These rocks present a thickness of full 
500 feet, and as the lowest strata are not exposed, the forma* 
tion may be much thicker than this. It is evidently a repetition 
of the same sandstone group that caps the summit on the west 
side, and passes under the limestone that forms the western slope. 
This rock, too, lies in the same relative position to the sandstone 
on the east side, capping the cliffs in some instances, and also 
forming a parallel outer range of hills, the strata still dipping 
east. 

All along the east side of the Black Hills, as far as I observed 
them, and further south, where these hills are lost in the main 
Rocky Mountain range, this group of marginal cliffs is traced, 
and everywhere they present a striking feature in the topogra- 


6 


phy, all tlie more marked by the bright red color of the sand¬ 
stone. Their forms at the Cheyenne Pass, and again at Boulder 
Creek, Colorado, are represented in the accompanying sections 
and sketch, and their range is designated in the ground plan or 
map. The hills appear to have once formed a continuous un¬ 
broken line, the western summit presenting a bold escarpment, 
the base of which is covered by the debris fallen from above. 
This constitutes the gentler slope seen in the section at the 
western foot of the hills. The eastern slope is that of the strata, 
and the surface on this side is frequently in chief part that of 
the rock itself, scantily overgrown with sage bushes, cactus, and 
grass, that have taken root in the crevices. Behind the first 
range, with an intervening valley sometimes nearly a mile wide, 
but much less further south where the dip of the strata is very 
steep, is a second range of precisely similar form, and near the 
Cherokee Pass, where the stage-road crosses the mountains, I 
have observed a succession of four or five such ranges, the 
outermost one dying away in reduced dimensions in the prairie 
to the east. Their covering of snow prevented my studying 
the structure. 

At the entrance to the mountains at Clear Creek, Colorado, 
there is seen extending several miles north and south, outside 
of this range of hills, another group of basaltic formation. The 
hills composing it are all remarkable for their peculiar tabular 
form, being perfectly flat on the summit, which is bounded on 
all sides by vertical walls, apparently a hundred feet high, 
of rudely columnar greenstone or hornblende rock. The 
summits are sometimes several hundred acres in area, and at 
others (as on one of most striking appearance just east of 
Golden Gate City) the extent does not seem to be more than 
three or four acres. In this, however, one may be deceived 
by the great height of the hill, which is probably full seven 
hundred feet above its base. These are the only hills of this 
formation I saw in the Pocky Mountains. Their position is 
represented in the map, and their form among the sections ac¬ 
companying it. The soil near their base is quite fertile, and is 
often cultivated for some distance up their very steep slopes. 
This group, as also the more extended range of sandstone hills 
behind them, traced north and south, are seen to be interrupted 


7 


at intervals of half a mile to a mile and a half by gaps, all of 
which are worn down to abont the same level, which may be 
300 to 500 feet below the summits. The mountain streams 
find their outlet through these gaps, and all the roads into the 
mountains pass up by the same openings. The rounding away 
of the ends of the hills in the gaps toward the east—the direc¬ 
tion of the dip—keeps exposed the strata, which in the face of 
the escarpment further west, occupy a much higher position; 
and to an observer facing the escarpment the impression -is con¬ 
veyed, that in each hill the strata at its northern end dip north 
and at the southern end dip south. In the middle of the face 
they appear to be horizontal, the basset edges only being in 
view. 

The peculiar form of these hills is obviously due to powerful 
denudation directed from the central ran^e eastward. On the 
shorter western slope of the Black Hills the effects of the same 
action in the opposite direction are less strikingly exhibited in 
the abutment of the same sandstone formation, which, as al¬ 
ready noticed, is seen on that side near the summit of the range. 
Other evidences of extensive movements over the surface from 
the main Bocky Mountain ranges eastward, will be presented in 
describing the formations examined further south. 

O 


The lower members of the limestone formation at the east 
entrance of the Cheyenne Pass are remarkably intermixed with 
various forms of silex, as flint, jasper, carnelian, and chalcedony, 
which sometimes present a rude agate structure. The flints are 
of many different colors; the jasper is in fine blocks of clear 
red. The sides of some of the hills are covered in places with 
fragments of these minerals—the flints and limestone often 
attached together. 

The operations of the party I accompanied being limited to 
the pass, I had no opportunity of extending my observations into 
the plains on the east side of the Black Hills. I had already 
become satisfied that it is in the plains, and not in the mountains, 
that the minerals I was in cpiest of are to be found, and after 
abandoning further explorations west of the mountains, I pro¬ 
ceeded to the region south of Laporte to investigate the charac¬ 
ter of the beds of coal and iron ore there opened and worked. 
The range of the formations, I had learned, would carry these 


8 


beds northward near the Black Hills, and a knowledge of their 
properties, which could he obtained in a comparatively settled 
country, though still covered with snow, would be useful in 
directing further explorations in the wild districts about the 
Cheyenne Pass to one provided with the necessary facilities for 
conducting them in a more propitious season. It was after leav¬ 
ing the pass that I learned from Mr. Duval at Fort Halleck, of 
the occurrence of iron ore in large quantity on the branches of 
the Chugwater, about twenty miles north from Camp W albach, 
which is an old deserted camp at the east entrance of the 
Cheyenne Pass. His description of the ore as heavy and mas¬ 
sive, with no appearance of a vein or “ lead,” would apply very 
well to the localities I afterward examined on South Boulder and 
Bock Creeks, Colorado ; and I imagine the ores of the two dis¬ 
tricts are of the same character. I was afterward directed by two 
other old explorers of these regions to the same locality, as the 
only one where they had observed any iron ores; and another 
pointed out the same district as containing coal also. It there¬ 
fore appears to be the most promising spot for subsequent 
explorations north of the stage route.* At several other locali¬ 
ties in the plains there are reports of coal being found. Some¬ 
where on Lodge Pole Creek it is actually worked, to small 
extent, for supplying in the winter the stage stations near the 
mouth of this stream. There is also a bed in the plains about 
seven miles north from the stage road, between Laporte and 
Latham. This I endeavored to find, but there was no road to 
it, and the country was covered with snow. A number of these 
localities are designated ujDon the map on both sides the Black 
Hills, as also north of the range on a small branch of the Borth 
Fork of the Platte, known as “ Trading-house Creek.” They 
indicate satisfactorily the great extent of the area over which 
beds of coal may be sought with good prospect of finding it. It 
has been supposed that a bed of it might be found in the black 


*On referring to the report of Captain Stansbury since the above was written, 
I find on the closing page the following remarks respecting the locality: 

“ In the bed of the Chugwater, and on the sides of the adjaceut hills, were found 
immense numbers of rounded black nodules of magnetic iron ore, which seemed of 
unusual richness.” 




9 


shales, exposed along the road eight miles south from Laporte ; 
but the few imperfect fossils I found here discourage this ex¬ 
pectation ; as they are referred by Prof. Hall to the tertiary 
formation. 

It is only in the vicinity of Denver, which affords a market for 
this fuel, that beds of it are worked to any extent. On Coal 
Creek and on South Boulder Creek, both about twenty-two 
miles north from this town, a number of beds are opened on the 
former creek, about fourteen miles east from the base of the 
mountains, and on the latter within three miles of it. On Coal 
Creek the outcrop of the coal is at the base of a high hill or 
ridge, rising back toward the east, and washed at its foot 
by the creek, which seems to have excavated its bed 
for some distance in the soft materials of the coal and 
of the fire-clay beds, that underlie and overlie it. One of 
the openings commences at the base of this ridge in a heavy 
body of blue fire-clay, which forms the roof of the coal; and 
penetrating this, passes into the coal bed itself, which presents a 
thickness of five feet ten inches pure coal with no mixture of 
slate. The tunnel has been carried in over one hundred feet, 
and for this distance the strata are seen to incline at a gentle 
dip not exceeding 2 Q or 3° toward the north. The coal is of a 
brilliant jet black, and is easily mined in large lumps, which ap¬ 
pear to be firm and sound. I am informed, however, that after 
exposure a few r weeks to the air, the lumps crumble to fine coal, 
and for this reason no large stock of it is kept in the coal-yards 
at Denver. Should the coal not be found to improve in this re¬ 
spect when mined to greater depths, or in other beds not yet 
opened, there may be difficulties in applying it to the smelting 
of iron ore, from the small particles clogging the furnace ; it may 
also work to disadvantage in locomotives by sifting through the 
orate bars. The coal seems to contain but little bitumen, burn- 
ing with little smoke, no unpleasant odor, and a yellow flame. 
It does not melt nor coke, and however high the draught, pro¬ 
duces no clinker. The ashes of most of the beds are usually 
white and bulky. A blacksmith who uses it informed me, that 
he can obtain a welding heat with it in a forge, but with diffi¬ 
culty. Sulphur is observed in it in small quantity in the form 
of exceedingly thin disks of iron pyrites disseminated through 
2 


10 


the seams. Particles of mineral rosin are much more abundant, 
scattered through the coal, the pieces being of the size of pin¬ 
heads. Several other beds of coal have been discovered in the 
same vicinity ; and one of these, a few rods to the southeast 
from the point already described, is worked to some extent. 
This coal bed appears to be an upper one, but though so near 
the other it has an entirely different dip, which is about 18° 
east. It is in two positions, the upper being seven feet thick¬ 
ness of coal, separated from the lower, which is four and a half 
feet thick, bv a stratum of dark blue fire-clay eighteen inches 
thick. The fire-clay appears to be of excellent quality for the 
manufacture of fire-brick. The mine is worked by following 
the coal-bed down the slope, and the coal is drawn up on cars 
by a capstan. No trouble is experienced from water, though 
the opening already extends about a hundred feet under the hill. 
The other bed also is dry. I found the workmen attempting to 
coke the coal of the second bed described, which they thought 
possessed a better coking quality than that of the other bed. 
The coke, though very inferior, and obtained only in small 
pieces, was purchased by the blacksmiths around in preference to 
the raw coal. A strong fuel such as g;ood coke is of great value 
in this region, as is shown by the fact of its transportation all 
the way from Kansas to the machine shops at Central City in 
the Colorado gold region, where more than a hundred tons of it 
have already been consumed at a cost of §160 per ton. 

The strata accompanying the coal-beds differ in some respects, 
so far as I could see them, from the strata of the true coal for¬ 
mation. There was the same variety of fire-clay, but the beds 
of it under the coal contained none of the stigmariael everywhere 
else found in this position. I saw no stems and leaves of ferns, 
but in the fire-clay over the coal, I obtained imperfect fragments 
of blackened deciduous leaves. Clay iron stone in nodules and 
layers occurs in the fire-clay. I was told of two layers, together 
eighteen inches thick in depth of fire-clay. I saw no beds of 
black shale, nor are any of limestone found in this formation : 
a few feet above the upper coal bed is a crumbly sandstone of a 
light gray color. On the extension of this ridge, two and a 
half miles further north, I examined some ledges which projected 
through the snow, the position of which I judge is over the coal 


li 


and not very far from it. These are thin bedded sandstones 
of yellowish color, and other layers more compact of bluish 
shade. The latter contained fossils hells, the substance of 
which is sometimes well preserved. They are recognised by 
Prof. Hall as belonging to the genera, cardium, cucullea, mactra, 
nucula, tellina, and ammonite; thus designating the formation 
to be as old as the cretaceous period. The deciduous leaves in 
the fire-clay determine the coal, or rather lignite beds, as be¬ 
longing to the same formation. 

The other coal district is in the hills along South Boulder 
Creek, only two and a half miles from the base of the Pocky 
Mountains. Several beds have been opened, and two of them are 
worked for the supply of the Denver market. This locality also 
affords an abundance of iron ores, and has been selected for the 
establishment of the first blast-furnace erected in the territory. 
This is nearly completed, and will probably go into operation 
in March. The principal coal-bed is opened a few rods southeast 
from the furnace, and has been worked one hundred feet down 
a slope of about ten degrees from the horizontal toward the east. 
The bed is twelve feet thick, almost uniform in quality, with no 
intermixture of slate, and presents a beautiful appearance in the 
brilliant lustre of the coal. A little sulpher (pyrites) may here 
be detected in the seams. It was from this bed that the first speci¬ 
men analyzed by Dr. Torrey, whose report accompanies this, was 
obtained. A second bed is opened about half a mile from the 
furnace toward Denver. Though further from the mountains, 
this bed is nearly vertical. It is about seven feet thick, and 
has been worked to the depth of fifty feet, the coal being raised 
by means of a liorse-whim. A third bed, three to four feet 
thick, just opened on the north side of the next hill east from 
the first named coal-bed, is found to be nearly horizontal at its 
outcrop. This promises to afford coal of a firmer quality than is 
obtained from the beds heretofore worked. 

Other beds are known in this vicinity; and both here and at 
Coal Creek some of them, I was informed, are consumed by fire, 
caused, it is supposed, by spontaneous combustion produced by 
oxidation of the pyrites in the coal. 

The fire-clay beds contain the clay iron stone, as on Coal 
Creek, but no attempts have been made to ascertain its quantity 


12 


or quality, and I could not anywhere see it in place. The de¬ 
pendence of the furnace is upon irregular deposits of a shelly 
hematite, locally known as “ top hill ore,” found scattered over 
the summits, ends, and slopes of many of the ridges which 
border South Boulder Creek and Ilock Creek. These deposits 
extend to a depth of only one to three feet, and as they evi¬ 
dently do not form a part of the strata in the hills, it is impossi¬ 
ble to make any estimate of the quantity of ore they will afford. 
One can judge only from seeing numbers of acres thus covered, 
that supplies may be obtained for one or more blast-furnaces 
for several years ; but extended observations would be necessary 
before positively asserting that large works could he supported 
from this source. The ore is found in pieces of all sizes, up to 
masses of half a ton weight, and large quantities of it are so fine, 
that it would have to be collected for the furnace by screening. 
There is scarcely any intermixture of foreign stony materials in 
these deposits. The quality of the ore is generally pretty good, 
though the larger masses are not so fine grained and pure as the 
smaller ore. I should judge that an average of three tons would 
be required to make a ton of iron. The ore is in excellent con¬ 
dition for the blast furnace, its long exposure at the surface hav¬ 
ing prepared it for smelting almost as thoroughly as if it had 
been roasted. Its unusual mode of occurrence, unconnected 
with the strata in the hills, was for some time a source of per¬ 
plexity ; and it seemed necessary to explain it correctly, in order 
to judge better of the probability of the ore being found in large 
quantities in other places on the range of these formations. On 
examining the country up to the base of the mountains, I dis¬ 
covered what I believe is the true explanation. At the distance 
of two and a half miles from the mines, the marginal ridge, 
already noticed, rises suddenly with a very steep face and dip of 
its strata, as represented in the section. The surface at its foot 
is covered with large rounded boulders from the granite rocks of 
the mountains. Some, also, are of the red sandstones and con¬ 
glomerates of the outer ridge. They decrease in size and num¬ 
bers towards the east, indicating the movement in that direction 
of vast bodies of water or ice. These, together with the evi¬ 
dences of denudation I had observed further north} evidently 
not referable to the diluvial or drift formation, appeared to me 


13 


as more strongly marked evidences of glacial action than I had 
ever before seen. The extension of this over the hills near the 
furnace must have excavated the soft beds, of which they are in 
great part composed; and the light clayey materials of the strata 
containing the iron ores being swept away by currents of 
water, these, by their weight, were left behind, and are now 
found spread over the surface of the hills. By long exposure 
they have been oxidized and converted from the clay iron stone, 
or “ blue core ore,” as it is here called, into the shelly hematite. 
Such a derivation of the ore, if correct, must itself make the 
quantity in any locality always uncertain. Found as it is, it 
is collected and delivered at the furnace at a cost of $3 per ton, 
making about $9 to the ton of iron. 

Most of the materials required for constructing and supplying 
blast-furnaces, are found in great abundance at this locality. 
Sandstone of superior quality for building is quarried from 
extensive ledges, that outcrop on the summit of a ridge within a 
few rods of the furnace. Blocks of it of uniform thickness are 
obtained of any desired size. It presents a fine appearance 
when cut, as seen in the small furnace, which is built of stone 
thus prepared. The fire-clay beds afford material for fire-brick, 
with which the furnace is lined ; and stones supposed to be suf¬ 
ficiently refractory, found near by, are used for the hearth and 
boshes of the furnace. An excellent limestone, both for mortar 
and Ilux, is found in a little ridge close at the foot of the mar¬ 
ginal sandstone hill, along the edge of the mountains, the posi¬ 
tion and form of which are indicated in the section. In the 
quarries just opened into this rock, I was so fortunate as to find 
a few well-marked fossil shells, which will probably determine 
the age of this formation, as well as of what I believe to be the 
same limestone, before described as occurring on both sides of 
the Black Hills. Good clay for common brick is abundant 
throughout this region. It is largely worked about Denver, 
where bricks are sold for §8 to $10 per thousand. On Bock 
Creek, a few miles from the furnace, at the crossing of the road 
to Denver, an establishment has been in operation for the 
manufacture of coarse articles of pottery. It is, however, now 
abandoned. The fuel with which it is intended to supply the 
furnace is charcoal, made from the pines of the mountains. The 


14 


owners of the works requiring only a moderate supply of good 
iron for their foundry and machine shop at Central City, are not 
disposed to try experiments at once with the mineral coal so 
near at hand. They estimate the cost of charcoal at the furnace 
at ten cents per bushel. The wood is cut by contract at $1 per 
cord, which is about three cents to the bushel of coal. The 
coaling will cost three to four cents per bushel, and the hauling 
the remainder. A difficulty is experienced in making charcoal 
in this region from the want of good turf for covering the pits. 
The light soil of the prairies or gravel of the mountains soon 
falls through among the wood when this is fired. 

The furnace, owned by Messrs. Langford, Lee and Marshall, is 
a very small stack, of daily capacity of only four or five tons of 
pig iron. It is twenty feet square at base, twenty-two feet high, 
and seven feet diameter at the boshes. The hearth is five feet 
high and eighteen inches diameter. It is intended to work the 
furnace with cold-blast, and the consumption of charcoal will 
probably be from two hundred and fifty to three hundred bush¬ 
els to the ton of iron. The cost of fuel in this case will be from 
§25 to §30, while that of ore, as above stated, may be rated at 
§9. The cost of the limestone for flux will probably not exceed 
fifty cents, and the remaining items of labor, repairs, &c., may 
be estimated at about §7. The total cost will probably be about 
§45 per ton of pig metal. In large establishments the expenses 
should be less, especially if the raw mineral coal could be sub¬ 
stituted wholly or in part for the charcoal. The quantity of fuel, 
too, would be diminished by the use of the hot blast. 

The prairie country bordering the mountain toward the east, 
which presents the same geological and topographical features 
through Colorado to the North Fork of the Platte Fiver, will, 
no doubt, be found to afford throughout this extent similar 
resources for the support of a population dependent upon agri¬ 
cultural and manufacturing pursuits. Though deficient in 
forests, the lack of wood will be compensated by the abundant 
supplies of mineral coal, the existence of which has already 
been detected, even to the southern portions of Colorado. 
In that region there are also found springs of petroleum, and 
the manufacture of kerosene oil is already carried on to small, 
extent near Canon City, for the supply of the Denver market. 


15 


The agricultural resources of the prairies are somewhat limited 
by the extreme dryness of the climate. Rain seldom falls, and 
were it not for the never failing supplies of water in the numerous 
streams running from the snowy central range of the Rocky 
Mountains, the country would be an uninhabitable desert. 
Yet the soil is in great part fertile, warm and mellow, and 
abounds in gypsum and salts of soda, which appear upon the 
surface in the form of a white incrustation resembling frost. 
This is particularly abundant around the edges of dried up 
ponds. The alkaline salts affect the waters of many of the 
wells, rendering them nauseous to the taste and unwholesome, 
and mixing with the dust of the roads this is said to be in the 
summer season very injurious to the eyes of travellers. It is 
remarkable, that notwithstanding the want of rain, no great 
trouble is experienced over the plains for the w T ant of water 
at the ranches and stations along the roads. I crossed the 
Platte River at Fort Kearney in October, over its dry sandy 
bed, and yet the wells along the valley contained abundant 
water, and in general they were not twenty feet deep, their 
bottoms not reaching to the level of the stream. It is difficult 
to explain from whence these supplies are derived. The dry¬ 
ness of the soil renders irrigation necessary for its successful cul¬ 
tivation, and this is already practiced to a considerable extent 
in Colorado after the system of the Mexicans, which consists in 
the excavation of cicequias or ditches, often several miles in 
length, by which the water of the streams taken out at an upper 
level, is carried at this elevation past the farming lands, over 
which it is let out as occasion requires by tapping the cicequias 
at any desired points. The cultivation is thus limited to lands 
lying below the level of the cicequias / and such lands are met 
with of considerable extent along most of the streams, spreading 
out to great width, even before these have fairly emerged from the 
mountains. Very productive and extensive farms thus situated 
are seen running up among the basaltic hills on Clear Creek, 
and similar improvements extend all along this stream to its 
mouth below Denver. The streams north of it, so far as, and 
including the Cache d poudre , afford the same advantages for 
cultivation of the soil, and along most of them the lands are 
occupied in continuous lines of farms. In the newness of the 


16 


country, which has been occupied only two or three years, the 
crops are limited to a few of the most necessary articles. Flour 
being supplied to the territory from the States and New Mexico, 
the cultivation of wheat is not so important as of the more bulky 
articles, which will not pay for transportation from such distances. 
Some wheat, however, is raised, and the crop is a successful one. 
But attention is chiefly directed to procuring the large supplies 
of hay, corn, oats, and vegetables, required by the numerous 
gold-mining population in the mountains. The hay being made 
from the wild prairie grass, its supply is limited only by the 
amount of labor employed in cutting and stacking it; still, owing 
to an overstock of it the previous year, the quantity put up in 
1863 Ms proved too small for the demands of the country, 
increased as they are by the extraordinary accumulations of 
snow, which, covering the plains, cut off the herds of cattle and 
horses, with which the country is abundantly stocked, from 
their accustomed support by grazing during the winter. This, 
together with the obstructed condition of the roads caused the 
price of hay in December last, to rise to $105 per ton at the 
gold mines. Corn, which is a good crop, and may be raised to 
any extent along the streams, was worth at the same time nine 
or ten cents per pound. Potatoes are produced in abundance, 
as also onions, cabbages, and many other vegetables; but in 
this unpropitious season the prices of all these range very high. 
Onions are raised with scarcely any of the labor attending their 
cultivation in the States, yet they were from ten to twelve cents 
a pound. They grow so luxuriantly that a single one often 
weighs more than a pound. Such prices cannot be sustained 
in a favorable season, and particularly when the country is 
supplied with a more numerous agricultural population. 

It is an important question, whether the cultivation of these 
prairies is always to be limited to those portions capable of being 
irrigated only by the system now in use. The mountains, it ap¬ 
pears, are abundantly provided with water, derived chiefly from 
the melting of the snows in the great Central Kange. A large 
part of this, without doubt, penetrates under the stratified rocks, 
which on both sides dip away from the mountains. These waters 
probably flow in underground channels far from the mountains, 
and if tapped by Artesian wells sunk down to them, they might 


17 


reasonably be expected to rise to the surface in never-failing 
springs. The stratification of the country is certainly remarka¬ 
bly encouraging to such an enterprise; and another inducement 
to its prosecution would be the discovery of the mineral beds, 
whatever they may be, beneath the surface. This would he a 
certain and most economical method of determining the existence 
or non-existence of beds of coal in localities where it might be . 
especially desirable to obtain this fuel. Artesian wells must at 
some time be exceedingly useful at Laramie Plains, which are 
not so well watered as the country east of the mountains. These 
plains, hitherto entirely uncultivated, afford in places good pas¬ 
turage, and a considerable amount of prairie-grass hay, for the 
use of the overland stage line and of emigrants. 

I left Colorado on the 19th of December, and being delayed 
several days in my journey through Iowa by the extreme 
severity of the winter season, arrived in New York on the 9th of 
January. 

Very respectfully, I am yours, 

James T. LIodge. 

New York, January 22, 1861. 


New York, February 13, 1861. 

J. T. IIodge, Escp : 

Dear Sir,—I have carefully examined and analyzed the sam¬ 
ples of coal, that you brought from the Rocky Mountains and 
placed in my hands. The specimens, according to the labels 
attached to them, are from two localities, viz., Coal Creek and 
Boulder Creek. 

Those from the former place were taken, as you state, from a 
bed more than ten feet in thickness. The mineral has nearly 
the hardness of ordinary anthracite, but is much more brittle. 
The fragments are often cuboidal or rliomboidal, and in some of 
them a little amber was detected. The lustre is bright and 
shining. The coal does not stain the fingers. Ihe powder is 
3 



IS 


black wlien viewed in a heap, but wlien a thin film of it is spread 
upon a white surface, it has a slight tint of brown. Specific 
gravity, 1.29. When heated in a glass tube, the temperature of 
which is gradually raised to 400° or 500° F., it gives off water, 
the last portions of which contain a little empyreumatic oil 
or tar. At a dull red heat it takes fire, burning with a 
bright yellow and smoking flame, emitting an odor be¬ 
tween that of heated bituminous coal, and that of imper¬ 
fectly burning wood. Some of the fragments gave out a 
slight odor of sulphur, which was traced to minute scales and 
spangles of iron pyrites, scattered here and there among the 
lumps. Compared however with most bituminous coals, this 
mineral fuel is remarkably free from sulphur. When submitted 
to analysis, it yielded the following results : 


Water in a state of combination, or probably its elements, 

as in dry wood. 20.00 

Volatile matter, expelled at a red heat in the form of 

inflammable gases and vapors. 19.30 

Fixed carbon . 58.70 

Ash, consisting chiefly of oxide of iron, alumina, and a 

little silica. 2.00 


100.00 

The ash is mostly reddish, but sometimes light gray. 
Another specimen contained only 16 per cent, of water. 


The coal from Boulder Creek, which occurs in a bed four feet 
thick and in another ten feet, has a general resemblance to that 
from the other locality, It is, however, more dense, having a 
specific gravity of 1.4, and is less brittle, and the fracture is not 
so glossy. It contains also flakes of mineral charcoal scattered 
through the mass, and the proportions of its constituents differ 
considerably from those of the Coal Creek bed, it being a 
stronger fuel. It contains a little sulphur like the other. The 
composition is as follows, viz.: 







19 


Water in a state of combination, or its elements. 12.00 

Volatile matter expelled at a red beat in the form of in¬ 
flammable gases and vapors. 26.00 

Fixed carbon. 59.20 

Ash, of a reddish color, or sometimes gray. 2.80 


100.00 

From the characters and analyses of the specimens here de¬ 
scribed, it will be seen that the Pocky Mountain coal belongs 
to the class of lignites, and that it is not technically a bitu¬ 
minous coal, neither cannel nor an anthracite. Still in common 
parlance it will be regarded as coal. The geological character of 
the rocks in which the mineral is found, will, I suppose, be 
given by yourself and Professor Ilall. In calorific power the 
Pocky Mountain coal may be placed between dry wood and 
bituminous coal, and therefore it is a most valuable fuel, es¬ 
pecially where bituminous coal and anthracite are not likely 
ever to be found, and fire-wood is difficult to procure. I see 
no reason why it may not be used for the smelting of iron and 
other ores. For locomotives it could be employed to advantage, 
with some modification of the fire-place. The ash is so small 
in quantity, and so light, that most of it would be carried off by 
the blast of the furnace. From my own trials, I find that the 
coal burns freely in a small stove, making a hot and clear fire, 
and leaving no clinkers. The specimens that I have examined 
show a tendency to break up and crumble after they have 
been soaked with water and allowed to dry, so that it would 
be well to preserve the coal as much as possible from being 
wet by rain. The lumps that you brought home from your 
journey show no disposition to crumble in a dry place. 

In conclusion, I remark, that the discovery of such extensive 
beds of a good mineral fuel is of the highest importance to the 
section of country in which they occur. 

The iron ore is limonite, commonly known by the name of 
brown hematite or brown iron ore. It is a compact variety 
and is certainly derived from carbonate of iron, some of which 
in an unaltered state is evident in one of the specimens. The 
carbonate will probably be found in larger proportion, as the 







20 


beds are worked further in beyond the reach of atmospheric in¬ 
fluence. There is reason to believe that the iron obtained from 
this ore will be of good quality. 

Yours respectfully, 

John Torrey. 


















































